Alibi
by heroherondaletotherescue
Summary: Sirius plopped down in the seat across from her, surprising her with his sudden appearance. "Just so you know, I was here the whole time," Sirius said quickly. "Never asked you," Arista replied smoothly, an amused smile forming on her pink lips. "I know, it's just in case someone does. We need to get our stories straight." He cleared his throat. "Or you just need an alibi."


Alibi

Arista was sitting at the Hufflepuff table by herself on this early morning, the Great Hall only filled with a few students as most were spending the weekend sleeping in. She was enjoying a cup of freshly brewed tea, her favourite blend courtesy of the house elves, and reading a very intriguing piece in the paper that her elder sister had published in the Daily Prophet when she was interrupted. Suddenly a figure had jumped into the seat across from her with flushed cheeks and messy hair that looked like it had been ruffled by the wind. It was an unusual sight because she had never usually seen this side of him, but interesting none the less and his arrival had brought a smile to her lips and butterflies to her stomach.

She looked up from her newspaper and the placed the cup of tea that was in her hand down on the saucer to inspect the new arrival that was Sirius Black. Apart from their harmless flirting in Potions, she rarely spoke to him outside of class unless they bumped into each other. She frowned, confused as to why he was there. But before she could ask, he had opened his mouth to talk already as he piled some fruit onto his plate.

"Just so you know, I was here the whole time," Sirius said quickly, "I was not, and I repeat _was not_ pranking my dorm mates this morning in the common room. And I did not just get chased all the way to the Great Hall by a prefect that I lost on the moving staircase."

"Never asked you," Arista replied smoothly, an amused smile forming on her pink lips.

"I know, it's just in case someone does. We need to get our stories straight." He cleared his throat, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone had followed him.

"Or you just need an alibi," Arista corrected with a raised brow when his sparkling grey eyes met hers.

"I always knew I liked you," Sirius said as he took a bite of the toast he had just spread jam on.

Not even a moment later, a ruffled Remus Lupin rushed into the Great Hall, eyes darting around to see if he could locate Sirius only to find him sitting by the Hufflepuff table. He was just about to walk over there when a body bumped into his, and then another one behind. He didn't even have to look, because Peter made a loud squeaking noise and James a groan from him the contact.

"Where's that slimy git?" James said. "I had feathers and honey stuck all over my hair, and Lily saw! LILY! She probably thinks I'm insane," James groaned. He had just been making way with her, getting her to see that he wasn't just some irresponsible kid, but actually a mature sixth year when Sirius decided to pull a prank on them.

"I think I swallowed some," Peter said, cringing at the thought. His mouth felt dry and he was sure that he had ingested at least two or three feathers.

"He's over by the Hufflepuff table, he's sitting with Arista."

"Well then, let's go on and investigate," James said, moving forward with purpose.

"Or get revenge."

"How about both?" Remus asked.

"Both sounds good," Peter and James hummed in agreement.

The boys plopped themselves down on the table, James and Peter on either side of Sirius, and Remus sitting down next to Arista.

"Good Morning, boys." She watched as Sirius poured her another cup of tea, and added in half a teaspoon of sugar, stirring it clockwise three times just like she liked it. She was impressed that he remembered and gave him a small reassuring smile causing him to relax his shoulders a little, the tension leaving him.

"Morning, Ari," The said in unison, smiling at the sweetheart that they all knew too well.

"Must be my lucky day, it seems as though all the handsome boys in the castle want to sit by my side," Arista said with a sly grin, winking at Sirius in particular. She knew that if she buttered up the others that they would soon forget about Sirius's short comings and leave their revenge alone, or at least perhaps delay it for later.

Why was she doing this you might ask? Well, Sirius had promised that if she helped him then she would be the new owner of her favourite Jane Austen novel that she had recently lost on the train to Hogwarts at the beginning of the year.

She wouldn't have caved in, but it was fun to see the desperation on Sirius's face as he begged for her help. It was a nice change from the snarky and sometimes insufferable pride that he held up in front of others as a façade.

"You flatter us, too much," James said, pushing his glasses up further on his nose.

"I don't mind," Peter laughed as he took a bite of an apple that was resting on Sirius's plate.

Usually that would have caused Sirius to swat his hands away, he didn't like anyone touching his food, but he was trying to get away with his prank and that meant that he had to be nice.

"Don't be silly, James. It's always a pleasure to be in the company of four fine and young gentlemen," She said in a sweet voice. "So how have you been? It's been a while since I've seen you all."

"Well, we're good. That was at least until we were pranked this morning," Remus said in an accusatory tone, eyes flashing over to Sirius.

"Oh no! What happened?" She asked, feigning ignorance.

Remus scratched the back of his neck before sinking further into the table, taking a piece of grapefruit for himself, finding that he was hungry after all the insanity of the morning.

"Let's just say that honey and feathers don't go together all that well."

"But you seem to be fine now," Arista said, receiving a shrug in response from the prefect. "I'm certain that you solved it easily enough considering you aren't still covered in the stuff."

"How did you know we were covered?" Peter asked suspiciously.

"W-Well, I figure it was safe to assume," Arista said quickly to cover her tracks. "Besides, I think James there has a little feather behind his ear."

"You're right, he does," Sirius said as he moved to pluck the white feather.

"That tickles."

"Well it seems that whoever did it was surely just jealous of you all," Arista said, tucking a piece of her dark hair behind her ear. "I mean, you are the best pranksters in the school, its common knowledge."

"It is indeed."

"Then I'm sure it won't be necessary for you to pursue the clearly amateur prankster that did this in the first place? After all, you mature gentlemen won't need to resort to such low levels to get this person back."

She could see the way Sirius choked on his hot tea when she used the word amateur and she just kicked his shins from across the table to get him to stop being so bleeding obvious.

"Hmm," Peter hummed. "You do have a point. Why waste time on it?"

"Besides, it's not like you know who it is, right?" Arista asked, waiting for them to take the bait.

"Well, we actually we have a feeling we might know who the prat was," James said. "He made me look like a right mess in front of Lily. I'm sure she's still laughing about it."

"You seem awfully quiet there, Sirius," Remus spoke up.

"Hmm," Sirius looked up from his plate. "I'm just lost in thought."

"Sure you are, we know you did it," Peter accused.

"Me?" Sirius looked at him incredulously. "You think I did it? I wasn't even in the common room this morning."

"I know it was you Padfoot," James said, narrowing his eyes at the boy next to him.

"It couldn't have been Sirius, he was with me this morning," Arista said nonchalantly, popping a grape in her mouth.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Sirius could not have been the one to pull the prank as it was only last night that he asked to have breakfast with me this morning. Ergo, he's innocent."

They looked to her and then back at Sirius, and then once more, not exactly believing it.

"It's true," Sirius said with a huff. "I wanted to spend some time with Arista before our date later today."

Her heart beat that little bit faster when he said that, his eyes meeting hers with sincerity as he spoke. She would have to ask him later what he meant.

"You're going on a date with Sirius?"

She nodded, and lucky for her a blush formed on her cheeks at the thought of actually going on a date with Sirius so she was sure that helped sell the story.

"Do you not believe me?" She was impressed that she had managed to recover enough from the distraction that Sirius's words caused inside of her.

"It's not you we don't believe, it's him," Remus pointed out.

"I'm a Hufflepuff, the last thing I would do is deceive you three, now please, if you don't mind, Sirius promised me that he would help me with my transfiguration essay," Arista said, standing up from the table, and Sirius followed her action.

"Alright then," James sighed. "Catch you later."

Arista grinned and waved goodbye before moving to exit the Great Hall, finding Sirius by her side when they got to the end of the Great Hall.

"Thanks for helping me back there," Sirius said as they walked towards the library.

"No problem," Arista said, "After all, not only are you going to be helping me with my essay, you're getting me a book too. You really are too sweet."

He frowned. "I never said anything about an essay."

"And I never said anything about a date," Arista shot back, a mischievous gleam in her eye.

He bit his lip and smirked at her. "Well then, it looks like you're getting both."

Arista grinned at him and then looked away, her smile growing bigger when she felt him slip his hand into hers as they walked to the library.

It had been a very weird morning indeed, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

Now was this random or what? I saw a prompt on tumblr and decided to make it my own and twist it up a little. A little bit of fun, with some flirting, something just to cheer anyone up.

Please let me know what you think via review. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all rights belong to J.K Rowling and respective owners. I only own my own OC and creative genius.**


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